It Gets Better
by figured-out
Summary: "This, everything, Finn. It gets better eventually." Rachel/Quinn friendship, post 2.09  Special Education . Touches of Finchel.


She makes some kind of spin that's supposed to end in Finn's arms but he doesn't catch her right and she ends on the floor. She doesn't blame him because she knows dance isn't one of his best qualities, but when he doesn't even help her up, it stings.

Once everyone stops laughing, Mr. Schue declares practice over, and Rachel goes to collect her things. She does it slowly, letting everyone else leave before her, and when she turns around to leave there's only one person left in the room. That person makes her way to her, and Rachel doesn't know whether to be scared or indifferent. She decides she doesn't really care about Quinn Fabray.

Quinn still approaches. She looks at Rachel hesitantly, and Rachel doesn't make it any easier by staring at her and waiting.

She finally speaks. "It gets better."

Rachel blinks a couple of times. "What does?"

"This, everything, Finn," she makes some kind of hand motion to the room. "It gets better eventually."

Rachel smiles with a bitter edge. "I doubt it'll be as easy on me as it was on you. All I did was kiss Puck, and nobody even looks at me. You got knocked up and everyone kept your secrets and sang you songs and _hugged_ you."

"I got kicked out of my house," Quinn says with a little smile that's mostly sad. "I still don't speak to my dad. I don't even know where he lives."

"Let me put it this way," Rachel suggests. "If my dad threw me out today, do you think Mercedes would have taken me in?"

"Probably not," Quinn agrees. "But would you really want to live with her?"

* * *

Rachel spends her evening pondering the talk with Quinn. She ends up deciding Quinn was right; Rachel really wouldn't want to move in with Mercedes, a girl who spends her time wishing all kinds of diseases on her that would make her lose her voice or preferably, make her disappear entirely. She'd probably smolder her in her sleep and take over all her solos with a bright smile.

She still doesn't know why Quinn came over to talk. Maybe now, that they've both cheated on their boyfriends with the same guy, they share something that makes them oddly connected. An unlikely bond.

* * *

They're the last ones at the choir room after the next practice, too. Rachel knows that Quinn has taken the step the last time, so she needs to do it this time. Problem is, she doesn't know what to say. They're not exactly friends, and they've barely ever spoken, other than at the last practice, last year after the Puck thing came out, and when Rachel asked her to try and get back together with Finn as a test. Nothing to draw from.

Her mind goes to the one thing they share.

"Does he ever talk to you?" she asks. Quinn looks at her, and walks over. "Who?"

"Finn."

"Oh," she understands. She doesn't speak for a while. "Not really."

Rachel is extremely confused. "Then why did you say it gets better?"

"Because it does. It takes some time but everyone stops looking at you like a whore and Finn doesn't give you dirty looks whenever he sees you. And you feel better about it, because you realize maybe not being with him is not such a bad thing."

That is not what she had in mind for _better_. She wants to say it, but she's nearly in tears and she doesn't want the girl standing in front of her to see her cry. She picks up her bag and Glee folders, and makes her way to the door. She only lets the tears fall once she's in her car, but Quinn has followed her to the parking lot to her own car, and sees her crying anyway.

* * *

They get paired up for Spanish project, and Rachel thinks this is Mr. Schue's twisted way of 'get Rachel to be a better team player!'. She really wants to choke him, but knows that won't do her any good. One, she probably won't cause any harm because he's taller and stronger. Two, it'd probably get her expelled, and she can't have her dads throwing her out because she really doesn't have anywhere to go.

So she locks eyes with Quinn and shrugs. Quinn shrugs back. After glee, they agree to meet the next day in the library to talk about the project.

* * *

They meet up after last period. Rachel has books, cards and different colors of pens out, and when Quinn shows up, she doesn't seem to think it's crazy. Well, Rachel knows, Quinn is a straight A's student herself, so it's not that surprising.

The project is actually a 20 minutes presentation on something from the Spanish culture. In Spanish, obviously.

Although she has a stack of books on topics she has in mind, Rachel decides to be a team player like Mr. Schue wants her to. "Do you have anything you want to talk about?" she asks when Quinn sits down.

There's a flash of surprise, but she hides it fast. "I was thinking art."

Awesome. "Goya?" Rachel suggests, and hands over some of the books sitting next to her. Quinn takes them and starts flipping. "We probably need to show some of his paintings," she says, and Rachel nods. "And we talk a bit about his life and that probably covers the 20 minutes."

They end up agreeing on the paintings quickly, divide up the work and set a day to meet up again. Who would have thought working with Quinn Fabray would be this easy? Rachel just shrugs to herself. She's learning to accept the surprises in life.

* * *

A few days later, after glee, they go over to Rachel's house to finish their presentation. They go up to her room, and Quinn notices the ballet shoes in the corner of the room.

"You dance?"

Rachel seriously has to consider if that is a real question. "I've been taking dance classes since I was three," she replies, and her tone is kind of snippy.

"I didn't know…" Quinn trails off, and Rachel wants to say 'there's a lot you don't know about me' but she holds it in.

Quinn just keeps going. "How come you've never tried for the Cheerios?"

"What?" Rachel looks at her amazed. "Are you serious? I don't even know what to say to that."

"I'm serious. If you've been dancing for years, you're probably good."

"And you'd take me?"

"Yes."

With that, Rachel can't help herself and she starts laughing hysterically. "Seriously," she says between rounds of laughter. "After hating on me for 15 years now, you would take me as a Cheerio? After spreading rumors that I was born a male, supporting the slushie facials, making my life _hell_, you'd make me a Cheerio?" she keeps on laughing. "I didn't know you were this funny, Quinn, or I'd try to be your friend a long time ago."

Quinn joins in on the laughter. Rachel feels it going up to her head, and she wonders if that's what feeling 'buzzed' is all about. She always knew she could get a natural high.

"Does that mean we're friends now?" Quinn asks when she stops laughing, and actually wipes a tear.

"I was never not your friend," Rachel says, and it makes her stop laughing. She looks at the girl across from her seriously. "You were the one who chose not to."

* * *

Their presentation goes without a hitch. Mr. Schue is seriously impressed and actually claps for them. Rachel fights the urge to take a bow.

When she gets to glee practice that day, he's already there, and he suggests that since her and Quinn work so well together, maybe they should try a song.

Thinking about it, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

They're 'sort of' friends now. The serious talk at her room got swapped for working on their project, and Quinn was at her computer working on the power-point portion while Rachel was combining their work and looking over for any kind of grammar mistakes. They practiced the presentation on her parents after running over it a bunch of times in her room, and were satisfied with the results. When Quinn left to go home, she turned to Rachel once she was out the door, and said, "I was serious about the Cheerios".

Rachel has been considering it since. She doubts it could actually happen, but she likes to close her eyes and imagine herself walking down the hallway at McKinley wearing the Cheerios outfit, everyone stopping to look at her, impressed, Finn included. She wonders if that would bring him back to her, but suddenly she realizes she doesn't actually want that.

Maybe that was what Quinn meant the first time she talked to her. Better meaning Rachel won't cry her eyes out over a guy who doesn't want her, she won't focus her life on him and think about him every second of the day and be miserable. She'll realize that getting back together for the wrong reasons is, well, wrong. She thinks she actually really is better now.

Finn doesn't glare at her hatefully when he walks in. She guesses that's some kind of 'better' too, because he also doesn't glare at Quinn. He does look surprised when she walks over to sit next to Rachel, and the two girls start talking quietly.

"Mr. Schue said we should sing together," Rachel tells her, and Quinn looks surprised. "You'd really want to do that?"

"Why not?" Rachel is surprised herself at the sound of doubt in Quinn's voice. "We did well in Spanish together."

"Because you're really serious about singing, and I don't have the greatest voice in the club…"

Rachel realizes maybe all this time she wasn't the only jealous one. She smiles brightly. "Maybe we can work on that. I have the _perfect_ song. Do you think you can get Brittany and Santana to sing with us?"

"Of course."

* * *

They do What Is This Feeling from Wicked. Rachel is Elphaba of course, and Quinn does Galinda. It's brilliant, really, and Rachel is so proud of herself for the song selection. Quinn thinks it's quite brilliant as well, and they laugh numerous times while rehearsing for their performance.

Rachel works with Quinn on singing louder and with more confidence. She's certain it'll improve her vocals drastically, and she's right. When Quinn sings louder, it doesn't seem that her voice is so weak. Rachel compliments her, because she knows that feels good and she knows she probably sang quietly because she was unsure of her vocals.

They practice a few times in the choir room, and a few times at Rachel's. One time they actually stop after school to get something to eat, and they sit across of each other, talking about non-glee things, for nearly an hour. Honestly, Rachel doesn't know how they got there.

When they go downstairs after rehearsing in Rachel's room for hours, they find her fathers in the living room watching Dancing with the Stars.

"Hey, girls," her dad says. "Good practice?"

"Very good," Rachel smiles at both her father and Quinn.

"You girls want to watch with us?" he asks and holds up a bowl. "We have popcorn."

Rachel glances at Quinn who smiles. "Sure," she says, and they both sit down. Rachel's dad passes the popcorn. Quinn roots for Bristol while Rachel cheers on Jennifer Grey, but that doesn't stop them from having fun.

* * *

They perform the song at glee practice, and get loud applause. "Wonderful, girls," Mr. Schue says, and smiles at Rachel, who wonders if singing with her sworn enemy was really all she had to do to get him to approve of her.

Finn and Puck seem kind of mortified. Rachel just smiles at them brightly, and sits back down next to Quinn, who's getting compliments from Mercedes and Tina. She seems ecstatic.

"We were awesome!" Rachel tells her. "Too bad it's not the right song for Regionals, or we would have booked our solos right here."

"Well," Quinn whispers while Mr. Schue starts talking. "Maybe we should do another song."

She turns her eyes to the teacher, and Rachel just smiles. She really thinks she has a friend now, finally.

* * *

They end up with the solos on one song at Regionals, and New Directions wins. Rachel screams and jumps up and down as she looks at the disappointed faces over at Vocal Adrenaline. The first person who hugs her is Quinn, and they jump together some more.

"I can't believe we won!" Rachel screams in their dressing room. "This is the best day of my life."

"I can't believe there wasn't any kind of drama," Mercedes says. "Yes!" Quinn calls. "I totally didn't go into labor!"

The whole club laughs, including Mr. Schue. Finn walks up behind Rachel. "You were really awesome," he says in her ear and she beams at him. "Thanks, Finn. That means a lot."

"Do you want to get something to eat together, to celebrate?" he asks, and she bites the inside of her lip. "I'm sorry, I already made plans with Quinn," she says, smiles at him, and walks over to the girls. He's left behind wondering.

* * *

They do celebrate together, a few days later. Finn takes her to Breadsticks, and Rachel couldn't be happier. Quinn helps her pick her outfit.

"Are you sure you don't mind this?" Rachel asks. A part of her wants to run out straight into Finn's arms, but another part, just as dominant, doesn't want to give up this friendship that has become so precious to her.

But Quinn just laughs. "Don't be ridiculous, I'm so over Finn. I'm really happy for you two," she says, and they both smile. Quinn takes out her make-up brushes and puts them to Rachel's face.

"I think I'm all done," she says after 10 minutes, and Rachel spins around to look in her mirror. She's shocked; she actually looks beautiful. As a response, she hugs Quinn tightly. "Thank you so much."

While they wait for their table, Finn holds her hand, and when they leave, he puts his arm around her and she cozies up to him. When they get into his car, she whispers, "I missed you so much". He kisses her softly. "I missed you too."

* * *

At the beginning of the following year, Rachel does try out for the Cheerios. She doesn't make it, and she doesn't really care. She likes cheering from the stands, carrying "Team Finn" signs, better anyway.

After every game, they double date- her, Finn, Quinn and Puck. She doesn't really know how it all worked out so well, but it took some time and now she loves it.

It's not that she doesn't get harassed anymore, she does. She even gets a slushie in her face every once in a while, but she finds it doesn't sting in her eyes so bad when she has someone helping her wash it off in the girls' bathroom.

They prepare for Regionals in glee again. Rachel thinks she has Mr. Schue all figured out now, and she does a song with Mercedes as a suggestion for the competition, which, of course, gets approved. Quinn does a song with Santana. Finn, by Rachel's suggestion, sings with Tina. Everyone's extremely excited, their confidence high and eyes set on winning, getting to Nationals again and maybe even winning for the first time ever.

Once again, Rachel feels special being part of something special.


End file.
